Signature DAC V

" This is an uncannily revealing player that exposes the vast differences between recordings like no other digital source I've encountered."

"I very much enjoyed the way you can follow individual instruments within a mix." Jason Kennedy, HiFi+ Magazine

“There is no doubt, MSB's Platinum Signature DAC 4/Data CD 4 / Signature Power Base is the best digital systems I have heard in the world. Why? ... the brass was light, and charming, not at all harsh, kind of easy like the artist playing in the street, it sounded so true...piano wood is there, the texture is so real I can reach out and touch the keys... the 'round' sound of the wooden tube in particular instead of the 'flat' sound I normally hear. ” Tao Zhonghao, Audio Art

“...the MSB Technology Platinum Data CD IV Transport and Platinum Signature DAC IV sound as good as digital gets.
Dynamics were better straight-in than with my Parasound JC-2 preamp in the chain.
While listening to 176.4-kHz/24-bit hires music from Reference Recordings' HRx Sampler 2011 DVD-ROM disc, the sound was nothing less than astounding.
The MSBs let me hear more low-level (quiet) sounds in my CDs. Reverb, whether natural or added in the mix, seemed newly apparent in recordings I'd heard hundreds of times. It's always been there, but no digital playback system I've had at home boasted the resolution to reveal it. Having worked on a number of Chesky Records sessions, including dozens recorded at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in NYC, I can state for certain that the MSB Transport and DAC resurrected more of the 173-year-old building's sound than I've ever heard from the CDs, SACDs, or DVD-As.” Steve Guttenberg,
Tone Audio

Simplicity

The Signature DAC V was designed in a way that it can be used as the last
component in your system before the amplifiers. With the added convenience of having
multiple digital inputs and one Analog input you can easily eliminate your preamp. You may connect
your turntable
through the analog input and all your digital sources directly to the DAC V. The Analog Output can be volume
controlled (if the optional Volume Control is installed).

About the DAC

The MSB Signature DACs are designed specifically for ultra-high
resolution audio. They allow the DAC to resolve
with greater accuracy, low-level signals with very low
distortion. Varying in design and using
tighter tolerance / lower noise components has allowed us to come up
with a very precise Signature DAC that more accurately reproduces audio. (For more information on How DACs Work! see this simple but accurate explanation.)

The Signature DACs use high precision resistors that are selected and matched specifically for
use in the Signature DAC Module. These
resistors and our unique design allow the DAC to convert more accurately with less
distortion and lower noise.

About the Sound

The Signature DAC V takes your listening experience to a new high.
The lower noise and distortion allow the dynamics to come to
life with more room for the music.
The top end is much more open
and the bass response is more musical and more resolving. It may be hard for owners of the Signature DAC IVs to believe that
their Signature can get much better, but it can.
For me, one of the best improvements are found in the
little things, the ring of the cymbal that regardless of how many
different instruments are playing, still rings out audibly
until it is finished moving, and remains perfectly stable in the
soundstage while doing so. DACs
that don't have as much resolution in the low level signals will
start to replace a ringing cymbal (or any other low volume audio) with
distortion, which quickly starts to sound like white noise within our
hearing range.

About the Measurements

The graph demonstrates the percentage of Total Harmonic
Distortion (THD) in reference to the volume level of a recorded signal. There are three DACs on this chart, the Signature Ladder
DAC, The Burr-Brown PCM 1738 (a high performance delta-sigma
DAC), and another ladder DAC by Burr-Brown, the PCM 1704. The Delta-Sigma DACs do spec very well but they do not tend to
sound as good as the Ladder DACs. Take a look at the horizontal 0.1% THD line of the
graph. This line is the
general rule of thumb for the maximum amount of distortion in a signal
that is undetectable.
If you follow the red line straight down from where each of these DACs cross the
0.1% THD line you can see the signal level at which the respective DACs
output will have audible distortion. Playing a 1 kHz signal at ~ 48dB below 0dB (0dB being
the loudest reference volume on a CD) , the PCM 1704 DACs output signal
has an audible 0.1% distortion. At -57 dB the PCM 1738 will output
0.1% of the signal distorted. The MSB Signature DAC is rated at more than
78dB below 0dB for the same signal, more than 20dB quieter than the competition! What does this all mean? In short, it means more music!
With the MSB Signature DAC, signals that are lower in volume will
still have much more resolution than with any other DAC available today. This is very important because there are many low-level signals recorded
in music, and where the other DACs will start to distort these signals the
Signature Platinum DACs will retain the signal integrity with out the
added distortion.

About the Digital Filter

Now after years of development, we have included our own
Custom 32x Digital Filter in the Platinum DAC V. Previous versions of the
Platinum DAC used the MSB 16x filter, and before that, the Burr-Brown DF1704, which at the time was the best
Digital Filter on the market. Our new 32x Digital Filter is built to our
specifications and standards, and is designed to get the most out of the
Platinum DAC modules.

The performance of this new Digital Filter is
amazing. Here is how one dealer described it:

When my client described an "uncluttered" sound, I think he is describing another commonality that people notice and talk about. They say " the music is coming from dark back grounds" or, "there is silence between the notes" . It is my contention that common digital harness (in the vocal range and above up into the harmonics), results in the human perception that there is a "continuum" or "smear" across the music that is not natural. When the digital harshness is not there, then there appears to be more discrete notes and silence between them. It is also described as organic and natural, etc. I think it crosses a threshold that makes the presentation believable and the music then gives up the emotion that the musician was trying to convey. You start to notice things like the natural sound from another room. Some other indicators in this category are: Am I thinking about the equipment or am I pulled in by the music? Am I listening to a song here and there on a disc or am I listening to more cuts, maybe whole CDs? Am I listening way too long when I should be doing other things?

The Signature DAC V comes with a family of digital filters for you to evaluate and best match to your system. Updates to this suite of filters will be available as time goes on.

The Digital Filter is a 32x oversampling, single
stage filter with 32-bit input resolution, 80-bit computation, and 36-bit
coefficients. More information on this custom MSB Digital Filter can
be found here.

About the Clock / Jitter Control

Jitter control devices (and inputs on most DACs)
normally clean up or phase lock loop the input signal from which the DAC clock is derived in an attempt to lessen the jitter of the DAC clock. The Signature DAC V does no such clean up. We actually
pay no attention to the clock on the input signal. All DAC clocks are generated by the Femto 140 clock. This extremely low jitter - less than 140 femtosecond clock sets a new industry standard. Since the input clock
is no longer related to the clock of the DAC, an intelligent half-second buffer is used to maintain data synchronization.

The Femto 140 clock is mounted in a clock socket and it can be replaced with the amazingly low jitter Galaxy Femto 77 or Femto 33 Clocks. These clocks are the lowest jitter clocks in the world, with less than 33 femtoseconds of jitter. These clocks can be easily installed. No setup is required.

Keeping the Source in Sync

We have demonstrated very clearly that a major sonic improvement can be experienced if the source device can be clocked off the DAC clock. Our PRO I2S interface keeps our transports in sync, by sending the super low jitter clock generated in the DAC out to the transport. Some servers also support this PRO I2S interface and run in sync. Other servers provide a clock input, and the MSB Clock Adapter can be plugged into either the PRO I2S output or the older MSB network output. The BNC output is a LVDS level 512x master clock output that can be used to keep the server in sync. This is a great upgrade and has already been approved by Aurender.

About DSD playback

The DAC V is able to accept DSD in all of its digital inputs, not just the USB input like most DACs. You can play .DXD, .DFF and .DFS files and can play 64x DSD and 128x DSD and with the Quad Rate DSD USB Input, can play 256x DSD native. Please note, you must have a 192 kHz USB input rate for 64x DSD and a 384 kHz USB input rate for 128x DSD. (You have been wondering why MSB has been shipping 384 kHz inputs for years now!) The extreme speed and resolution of our DACs provide a DSD experience unlike any in this world. You must hear it to believe it.

About the Optional Attenuator

Our Preamp philosophy is based on the belief that from the
moment analog audio is created, every transition that is made degrades the
quality. This is why we have used a passive attenuator within the Signature
DAC V and a single OpAmp, to achieve the simplest, shortest possible signal path with
the least possible degradation of the true music. The Signature Volume is
controlled in 1 dB steps from +9 to -69 dB. Half or quarter db steps can be selected as a menu option. The Volume Control is
completely bypassed when at 0 dB.

This attenuator section is also designed to serve as a way to
match the naturally high output level of the Platinum DACs to any desired
outboard preamp. This has proven to be extremely useful for many of our
customers that are happy with the Preamp they have known and used for
years. It allows the two devices to be correctly matched with each other.

About the Power Base

The DAC V is equipped with an outboard power supply. This remarkable power supply has separate toroidal transformers for each voltage supplied.

The Signature Power Base includes a positive and negative analog supply and a digital supply to run all the digital processors. But it also contains an entirely separate extra clean digital supply of twice the power of the standard power base to run the sensitive digital clocking circuits on the DAC modules themselves, and the sensitive transition circuits, that interface to the analog world. Each of these Signature supplies is tightly regulated, filtered and shielded in the box, so no noise is introduced into the DAC chassis.

The Signature Power Base also contains a digital Transport Supply, allowing the same power base to be used to power an MSB transport. This Power Base can be upgraded in two ways. A higher power digital only supply can be added to improve the performance of your MSB Transport or you could upgrade to the Diamond DAC V Power Base for improved DAC performance. See Power Base Comparisons for options.

Each power base is supplied with a DAC cable and a Transport Cable. They can also be upgraded to Diamond Level.

In any case, we strongly urge the use of the MSB Isolation Base with any DAC V. The Isolation Base protects the sensitive DAC and DAC/Amplifier interface from external noise.

This is the Signature Power Base with DAC IV style heatsinks. Also shown is the Isolation Base.